


My Accidental Happily

by PhantomGrimalkin



Series: Mark of Fate [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-10
Updated: 2014-12-10
Packaged: 2018-02-28 21:12:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2747273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomGrimalkin/pseuds/PhantomGrimalkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short reflection on why Pepper's love life.</p><p>(title taken from Ne-Yo's 'Never Knew I Needed')</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Accidental Happily

Romance had never been a big priority for Pepper Potts. She never fantasized about her dream wedding, never imagined her dream partner. Whenever conversations with childhood friends turned to dreamy talks about what their soulmates were like, she smiled sweetly and tuned out. She didn't shun romance, of course, she dated throughout her lifetime, but her relationships always took a backseat to everything else in her life.

This could have been because she was born without a soul spot, enough people told her as much. Sometimes it was said with pity, sometimes with disgust. Even when people didn't know her well enough to _know_ she was markless, anyone who felt overshadowed by the overachiever would still speculate on it. As a result, she surrounded herself with people who valued her for who she was, rather than wasting her time with people who considered her selfish for not sacrificing her career or friends for romance.

When she became Tony Stark's personal assistant, she would joke that she spent so much time running after him that she didn't have time for another relationship.

When they began dating, the speculation took a bit of a nasty turn, as she knew it would. Somehow the tabloids found out that she had been born markless, which didn't help. The longer their relationship lasted, the kinder the public became. Towards the end, she would often wonder if she was staying with Tony just because she didn't want to deal with the backlash if their relationship ended.

It was never going to last, though. She wasn't what Tony needed, and Tony wasn't what she needed. The surprise came when Tony accepted this as well. The breakup was surprisingly painless, as they both realized that there hadn't been much of a relationship to end.

Of course, the tabloids went wild. Anyone in the company who was against her did, as well. They had always been happy to say that she didn't deserve to be CEO, that it was favoritism. Now that the relationship ended, it was all too easy to paint her as a vile seductress who had used Tony to get her position, and who didn't deserve it.

Tony had wanted to tear apart anyone who had the guts. Pepper preferred a much more graceful method. It wasn't long before she had silenced all but the most bull-headed of her detractors.

* * *

 

Tony had never actually told Pepper that he had been born without a soul spot. He let her believe that he and Rhodey were soulmates, just platonic. It was uncommon, but not unheard of. This had actually been part of why Pepper was willing to date Tony, she was attracted to the idea of soulmates who were happy with careers that kept them so far apart. They were always close friends, despite spending so much time apart, but neither ever put pressure on the other to spend more time together. It seemed perfect.

What she got was completely different, though. It didn't help that, at the start, Tony _was_ her job. She was his personal assistant, and now they were romantically involved. On top of that, she envisioned a relationship with a man who could be independent. Instead, Tony's deep insecurities came out. The paparazzi that had once given her little attention now hounded her. Having a life beyond Tony was a daunting task, and she found herself drowning.

A few months into the relationship, Tony showed her a new mark- a pepper pott. At first, she had thought it was a tattoo, perhaps henna, and thought it was an endearing gesture. Then he revealed the truth, that he'd been born without a soul mark and had developed the one for Rhodey, that Rhodey had a completely different one.

She very nearly ended it right then. This wasn't what she had signed up for. She felt betrayed. The glimmer of hope in his eyes as he wondered if the same thing had happened to her broke her heart and she realized that she couldn't leave him. Even if he wasn't her soulmate, she was his, and she knew she loved him.

 

In hindsight, Pepper realized that Tony had never told her otherwise. He hadn't actually lied to her, she had assumed. She had seen enough of Tony's insecurities that she should have suspected how the relationship might go. It had just seemed so perfect that she let herself be blinded to the reality. She did love him. He did love her. Neither of them actually had any romantic interest in the other, though.

* * *

 

The first time she met Natalie Rushman, she found the woman intriguing. Beautiful, confident, intelligent, independent. It wasn't hard to develop a crush on her, as she was sure many who met her did. This was probably what caused her instincts to fail her.

Obviously, Natasha was also a skilled spy who had more than enough experience at fooling people with more training than Pepper. Pepper knew that, but when the deception was revealed she was hit with every single time she had noticed a red flag or her gut had said something was not right and she had ignored it. They were only a small handful of moments, but enough for her to feel she should have realized. If the sense of hurt and betrayal went much deeper than it had any right to, Pepper waved it off.

When the Avengers began taking shape, Pepper refused to even glance at Natasha's file. When Tony wanted to move all of the Avengers into the tower, Pepper had more reluctance to accept Natasha in than she did Bruce and Thor put together. She finally agreed, but insisted she was moving back to Tony's Malibu house.

It was hard to build back the trust. They didn't exactly have many opportunities for it, they had very separate lives that almost never crossed paths. Natasha realized that Pepper wanted nothing to do with her, either because she was capable of reading people or because she had been warned Pepper didn't know, and gave her the space she demanded. Instead, Natasha steadily built it back through the team. It was impossible not to notice that they had become a family, that she had everyone's back. Even off the field, Natasha often helped push her teammates in the right direction with her insight and guidance.

Pepper grew to trust Natasha far before she was willing to admit it or forgive the woman.

A week after the Mandarin debacle, Natasha showed up on Pepper's doorstep in a casual outfit and asked if she wanted to go out to drinks. A month ago, Pepper would have slammed the door in her face. Now, she nearly crumbled from the weight of holding it together, and pointed out she wasn't going to be much fun that night. Natasha gave her a small smile that felt genuine and caused a knot in Pepper's stomach.

She got dressed in something casual and Natasha managed to take them to a club where no one seemed to realize who Pepper was. She introduced herself as Virginia, just in case, and got to spend a night of dancing and light flirting and fun with people who didn't know her as Stark Industries CEO or Tony Stark's Ex. Natasha was an expert at body language and was able to fade into the background when she wasn't needed and be right at Pepper's side when she was. It was comforting and a proper break that she hadn't realized how badly she had needed.

Because of the damage the Mandarin had done to the Malibu house, Pepper and Tony had to move back to New York and the Tower with the other Avengers. Of course, they were both wealthy enough that Pepper easily could have rented or even bought another place, but she no longer had her reluctance to live near Natasha. Their girls' night outs started to become a regular thing, and after the third time, Pepper realized that Natasha actually did appreciate it just as much.

* * *

 

About two months after Pepper and Tony finally ended it, Natasha and Pepper were curled up on the couch in Pepper's apartment. They had wine, but were nowhere even near tipsy. She said something that had made Natasha laugh and felt herself leaning over and kissing the other woman. It was soft and sweet and there was a hint of wine and chocolate.

At first, it was just sex. Fun and comfort between friends. Or maybe that was what they told themselves, to keep their masks firmly in place.

Until, one day over drinks, Tony said, “And when are you going to finally tell me about your girl?"

“My what?” Pepper laughed. She couldn't imagine calling such a powerful woman as Natasha a 'girl', much less claim any kind of ownership of her.

Tony scoffed, “Please- as if I didn't notice how you look at her. C'mon, Pep, I know you better than that.”

Pepper had continued to deny it, brushing off his comments. Then she got back to her apartment and found Natasha waiting for her with a cup of tea. They sat together on the couch and Pepper quietly murmured. “You know, Tony thinks you're my girl.”

“Does he?” Natasha asked with a gentle chuckle. She looked over at Pepper and the two just held the gaze for a long moment. “I actually like the sound of that.”

Pepper felt her heart speed up, “So do I.”

* * *

 

It wasn't perfect, nothing was, but it was what Pepper had never admitted she dreamed of. While they lived in the same tower, they kept their separate spaces. Their jobs were not only different, they each had confidential aspects they couldn't tell the other about. While sometimes it did hurt to be pulled away from Natasha for days or weeks at a time, she loved coming back to her all the more.


End file.
